Power table saws are used by individuals at home or in the construction industry at a jobsite. In particular, at a construction jobsite where workers cut and shape a large number of wood products, portable table saws are used. For example, framers use portable table saws for rough-cutting lumber, while finishing carpenters use portable power table saws capable of making rip and miter cuts for producing precise finishing cuts of trim pieces.
Most portable power table saws that are currently commercially available have an undercarriage assembly which permits vertical as well as angular adjustability of a driven saw blade that extends through an opening in the table top. Such adjustability enables the height of the blade to be controlled for making safe and accurate cuts on a work piece by the table saw, and the angular adjustability enables the blade to be positioned to provide bevel cuts.
The power table saws are also used by individuals or carpenters for producing precise finish work in construction for a home or office. Consequently, additional accessories are often used, in addition to the standard saw blade used for making rough cuts of lumber and relatively simple linear cuts having the width of the standard saw blade. One such accessory blade is known as a “dado” set or dado blade.
A dado set is one type of a circular saw blade which is used with a table saw or a radial arm saw to cut grooves in lumber or other cutting stock. The dado set includes one or more blades, known as a stacked dado set, wherein multiple blades are stacked side by side to make the cut or groove. Depending on the width of the groove, one dado blade can be sufficient to make a desired groove. In other situations, multiple dado blades are stacked, which of course not only makes the groove wider, but also increases the width of the dado set.
Another type of dado is known as a wobble blade or wobble dado which is mounted on a multi-part adjustable hub. The wobble dado is a single circular blade that mounts at an angle on an arbor shaft of the table saw. The width of the groove being cut depends on the angle of the wobble blade with respect to the arbor shaft. When the angle increases, so does the width of the cut.
When used with a table saw, the dado blade extends from underneath and up through an aperture disposed in a table top of the table saw. The aperture is configured to include a length greater than the diameter of a circular saw blade for which the table saw is intended and consequently is sufficiently long to accommodate the majority of dado blades. In addition, the aperture includes a width sufficient to accommodate the width of the most commonly used saw blades for use with the table saw. Because the table saw is also used with dado sets having varying widths of cuts, the table top of the table saw includes a throat insert, also known as a table insert. Different throat inserts are used for a standard blade and for a Dado blade each of which includes a different width aperture. Some table saws can include an insert which can be removed and inserted into a predetermined location in the table top such that a variety of widths of saw blades and dado sets can be used.